Blossom time

Remember this time last year we had snow? well, it was pretty grey yesterday when I walked from the office along Jackson Street to the Post Office - and on the way saw this as a huge burst of colour.  And I swear it wasn't there two days ago - so spring, perhaps a trifle waterlogged, but spring nevertheless is on the way!


Some time ago I showed my ikat top that I made when I was stitching with a group over in Whitby.

I enjoyed our weekly sessions, though for a while we seemed to be doing very little stitching, so one day I got out a favourite basket and put into it a blue and gold batik type fabric.  Then I took out from my stash every fabric I thought would go with it and gradually over the week filled the basket.

When I got to the meeting I plonked it in the middle of the floor and asked for help to decide what block I should use for a quilt - we had such fun.  Magazines and books appeared, and paper & pencil while we discussed ways and means.

I didn't actually use the suggested block, but a while later Capital Quilters had a weekend of classes so I went along with my basket of fabric and joined the Zig Zag quilt class.

I got this far in the class -

So I finished it at home - it's a bit large for my design wall -

Here's a close up of the bottom border which shows the fabric I started with -

Then, all the bits left over were joined together for the back -

Now it has joined the pile of flimsies waiting to be quilted........

I've been having a bit of a play with an old pattern, I think it was a block of the month for one of the clubs,

The original instructions were to cut two squares of a certain size and divide each one to give the four triangles.  But looking at the block that would mean bias seams at the edges, which I do not like if I can avoid it - so I cut a larger square and divided it in four - you can see my elegant diagram at the right.

Then I played around with different sizes, I think it has possibilities - maybe could be used instead of a plain square in a nine or four patch, then I played a litte more and put the spokes going in the other direction and used two fabrics for them, and then doubled up on one 'arm' -











My quote today is, "The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards."  Arthur Koestler

Thanks for stopping by
June